The little guys

July 16, 2007 by pmelcher.

No agency is an island. What we see more and more, as the market is evolving towards bipolar extremes, is small and little agencies not only shrinking in its offerings and niching, but also diminishing their client base.

There are two poles of attractions these days for image buyers, the mega libraries, offering everything under the sun ( Getty, Corbis, etc) and the hyper specialized creators . Since the mega libraries have a large offering, they also have a mega client base. The little guys, instead of trying to reach for the same client base, use the gravitational pull of the bigger guys.

A bit what we see in the retail space. You have a great product but you do not have the distribution. Therefore you give it to someone who has. Something out of the big pie is better than nothing. So, in a way, the new contributors of the large agencies are becoming like photographers, contributors. Getty distributes a myriad of smaller agencies as does Corbis.

There is nothing wrong with that, it seems, besides the fact that these little guys are feeding the beast that is killing them. There is nothing wrong with this model, because it allows the little guy to be a little bit stronger than their competition, which is the other little guy next door. And get that other little guy out of business.

And when that smart little guy gets rid of the other numerous little guy, they will become a big guy. right?

Wrong. The only one that wins, exactly like in the retail space, is the big guy who becomes even stronger, bigger and more powerful. The little guy remains little. Few if not none, have yet understood that.

Huge expenses, relative to the size of the agency, are being put into building a storefront, a distribution platform, only to make an agreement with Getty or Corbis for distribution . And then senseless marketing effort is being spend to try and attract customers away from these giants back to their platform. It is like pedaling in soft mud. It’s is useless. pointless.

Now take 5 agencies. Different offerings: one sports, one celebrity, one commercial stock, etc. You linked them together into one distribution platform and you have an extremely competitive offering. No one looses as each remain independent yet all benefit from each other. They share clients who now can select from a much wider source of images. The technology exist. The will ? not yet.

But as soon as some agencies stop thinking like local groceries stores, more preoccupied by protecting what they have instead of increasing their revenues, then whole photo system would change and the forces of gravitation might shift away from the giant gas planets to the newly formed rock based entities.

The business world is changing at a very fast pace. Original entrepreneurial thinking has never been so successful. There is presently an opportunity that no agency should miss.

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